It’s no secret competition in Google Shopping is on the rise as more retailers enter and increase their investment in the channel. What was once the savvy marketer’s secret is growing more crowded by the day.
You might see a drop in impression share, even during times that have historically been your strongest.
By choosing your battles wisely, you can regain impression share despite increased competition in Google Shopping. Take these strategic steps.
1. Adjust Your View of Impression Share
Be sure you’re looking at impression share at a granular level, such as by product group. This lets you gain a much better understanding of important segments of your catalog, such as top sellers or high-margin items.
PRO TIP
If you have only one campaign, consider breaking out your highest and lowest performers into separate campaigns to get a more accurate view of impression share for the most important parts of your catalog.
DIVE DEEPER
Learn why campaign structure is a major key to successful campaigns.
2. DIG INto other competitive metrics
Impression share is only one metric that reflects how well your products stack up against the competition. By tracking a few more metrics, you can better understand the competitive landscape and what might be contributing to low impression share. We suggest looking at benchmark metrics and click share.
PRO TIPS
Benchmark Metrics: When bumping up bids in response to competition, be sure to adjust them only on individual products you deem worthy of a higher bid. This way, you can ramp up budget only on priority products, without overspending on the larger product group.
Click Share: If impression share is low, and click share is high, you might consider bidding more aggressively to increase impressions, and earn even more clicks.
DIVE DEEPER
For more information on Google Shopping metrics to watch, check out these key takeaways from the 2017 Google Shopping Benchmarks Report.
3. RE-EVALUATE YOUR MOBILE STRATEGY
Increasing your impression share on the right products on mobile can translate to big wins across all devices. Ensure you’re not being too conservative with mobile bids. Those mobile impressions can lead to desktop conversions.
PRO TIP
Create a separate campaign just for mobile. You can set mobile-optimized bids and gain much better views into your product performance across devices.
DIVE DEEPER
Learn more about maximizing ROI with mobile campaigns in this E-commerce Marketing Minutes video.
4. GAIN CONTROL OVER KEYWORDS
If you’re ready to get even more granular to grow impression share, look to search queries. Start by reviewing your search terms report—available in the Dimensions tab—to find your most valuable search terms.
PRO TIP
After determining your most valuable search terms, focus on growing impression share only on those items. See how it's done, taking jeans as an example product.
DIVE DEEPER
Learn more about the Dimensions tab in this E-commerce Marketing Minutes video.
5. modify titles for how shoppers search
Optimizing your product titles is another way to give impression share a bump. The key lies in search query data. Edit your titles to look more like the search queries that you want your products to show for in Google Shopping. This makes your products more relevant to the way shoppers search, which can translate to more impressions.
PRO TIP
When you set out to optimize your titles, it’s very important to test. Select one product line or segment of your catalog, edit only those titles, and monitor results before moving on to other parts of your catalog. Measuring those results against a group you leave untouched will give you a better read on the success of title optimization efforts.
There you have it. You don’t have to blow your budget to win impression share. By segmenting intelligently and spending strategically, you can position your products in front of the right shoppers even as competition grows in Google Shopping.
Benchmark metrics
Metrics including benchmark max cost per click (CPC) and benchmark click-through rate (CTR) allow you to see exactly how much you’re being outbid and outperformed by competitors on individual products. If your bid on a pair of jeans is less than the benchmark max CPC, you know that competitors are bidding more aggressively and grabbing those impressions.
Click share
Click share, which is specific to Google Shopping, tells you the percentage of clicks on your products relative to the clicks they were eligible to receive. It’s useful to track click share along with impression share to understand how often shoppers engage with your products when they surface in Google Shopping.
example: Gaining control over keywords
After determining your most valuable search terms, focus on growing impression share only on those items. Here’s how it’s done, taking jeans as an example product.
1) Break out jeans into its own campaign.
2) Within this campaign, create two ad groups—one for high-value search terms you want to rank for, and one for low-value search terms that are expensive or indicate low purchase intent.
3) Bid aggressively on the high-value search terms group and conservatively on the low-value group.
4) In the high-value search terms group, make a low-intent search term—let’s say “men’s jeans,”—a negative keyword. This leaves more budget available for your products to show for search terms that indicate higher purchase intent.
5) In the low-value group, bid less aggressively on these particular search terms. This allows your products to show up for the negative keywords you designated in the top ad group, but at a much lower cost.
1) Break out jeans into its own campaign.
2) Within this campaign, create two ad groups—one for high-value search terms you want to rank for, and one for low-value search terms that are expensive or indicate low purchase intent.
3) Bid aggressively on the high-value search terms group and conservatively on the low-value group.
4) In the high-value search terms group, make a low-intent search term—let’s say “men’s jeans,”—a negative keyword. This leaves more budget available for your products to show for search terms that indicate higher purchase intent.
5) In the low-value group, bid less aggressively on these particular search terms. This allows your products to show up for the negative keywords you designated in the top ad group, but at a much lower cost.
